UNTIL ANGELS CLOSE MY EYES
Chapter One
August 18, 2004
Perris, California
The residents of Warbonnet Street
paused in their activities one evening when a large white moving van passed them.
Eyes widened with curiosity, following the route of the vehicle until it turned
a corner.
"It’s about time!"
Joanna Gutierrez exclaimed, hopping up from where she sat on her front lawn and
running to the curb. "I was wondering if anyone was ever going to move
into that place!" She prepared to follow the truck when her friend, Meg
Deluche, grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Don’t. It’s not fair…we’d
be spying!" she hissed, and Joanna rolled her eyes.
"What’s wrong with a little
curiosity now and again?" she asked, shrugging Meg’s hand away.
"With you, it’s never just a
little." Meg sighed, deciding it was probably better to follow Joanna than
to argue with her…at least this time. The two girls passed the rows of working
class houses, waving every now and again to neighbors who called. At last they
reached the house with the Sold sign on the lawn and stood opposite it.
"There’s the car," Meg
whispered, pointing to the black Mercedes pulling into the driveway. Just as it
came to a stop, a familiar blonde head came whizzing towards the girls.
"Hey, Dawson, where’s the
fire?" Joanna called, and the bike screeched to a halt.
"What’s up?" he asked,
running his fingers through his hair, blowing out his breath. He set his
leather portfolio on the handlebars for the moment and tried to stop his heart
from racing so quickly. Meg pointed, and Jack followed her finger to the house
next door to his own.
"Wow…someone’s finally
moving in!"
Joanna grinned. "You should
stay and introduce yourself," she suggested, but Jack shook his head.
"I would, but I can’t…I have
to do this scenic portrait for my art class tomorrow, which I haven’t even
started." Truth be told, he’d been feeling a bit lousy lately…achy and
tired…so much of his schoolwork sat untouched. But they did not need to know
that fact, in his opinion.
Meg clucked her tongue playfully.
"Slacker," she teased, pretending to punch him on the arm. He stuck
out his tongue, glancing up at the sky.
"Yeah, well…" He gave a
shrug. "I’ll catch you two later, I guess. Try not to pester my new
neighbors too much, okay?"
"I’ll tell her not to,"
Meg replied, whispering loudly on purpose so that Joanna would hear her.
"Smart ass!"
Jack laughed, saluting them.
"Adios," he called, and sped off again.
*****
Shortly after the black Mercedes
pulled into the driveway, another car, a red Saturn, pulled down the street. A
young girl, about seventeen years of age, sat in the driver’s seat. Her long
red hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and sunglasses covered her emerald
eyes against the early evening glare. She checked her rearview mirror, having
noticed a handsome boy her age riding past on a bicycle, and felt her heart
leap with excitement.
For the past couple of weeks
she’d dreaded the move from Menifee to Perris, but if there were more cute boys
like him in this neighborhood, perhaps this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Though he did bring a tiny ray of light into the current situation, that did
not make the reason for the move less serious.
Rose sighed softly,
half-listening to the music coming from the station she’d chosen, and pulled in
behind her mother’s car. Just months before, her father had died in a horrible
car accident on the 91 Freeway on his way to work in Irvine, and soon
afterwards, Ruth DeWitt-Bukater had discovered the dreadful debt he’d left them
in. The two had been forced to move from their large, luxurious home to
something much smaller, which Ruth did not miss a chance to destroy verbally.
Rose knew she would miss the
comforts of wealthy living, though the society itself she cared little for. She
sat very still for a moment or two, taking a deep breath and opening the door.
Ruth stood chatting with the two moving company men, using her hands in an
attempt to describe where she wanted them to put certain things.
"There you are," she
gasped when Rose came towards her, carrying her small, black purse over her
shoulder.
Rose felt eyes on her back and
glanced over her shoulder, noticing Meg and Joanna watching them. She smiled,
glad to know there would be kids her own age for once to hang out with.
"Traffic," Rose quickly replied, surveying the house with interest.
It wasn’t half bad, considering. "Uh…Mom?" she motioned with her head
towards the girls across the street. "Can I invite them over to say
hi?"
Ruth looked horrified. "And
see our house in this state? I think not, Rose! Besides, do you think the
moving van will unload itself? Two men can only do so much, you know!"
Rose sighed, shooting the two
teenagers an apologetic look, and grabbed the first box she could lift. "I
need to start working out again," she grunted, stumbling forward
pathetically as she walked through the front door. The hallways were narrow,
and unlike their home in Menifee, she found no stairs.
"In the bedroom," she
could hear her mother tell one of the men, and followed it to the medium-sized
living room. The ceilings in the house were not very high, and the living room
had dark brown walls and a white stucco ceiling.
"Oh, this will never
do," Ruth muttered under her breath, and Rose had to agree, for once. It
looked so dark and dismal, as though they were living in a morgue. She noticed
Rose standing next to her and pointed to the box. "What’s in there? Set it
down."
Rose gratefully put the box on
the carpet and opened the top. "Kitchen supplies…right there." She
pointed to the counter diving the living room from the tiny kitchen space.
The moving men went back outside
to get more things, and Rose followed her mother’s instructions. "We are
going to have to completely redecorate this dump," Ruth exclaimed,
throwing her arms into the air as Rose put several glasses into one of the
wooden cabinets above the sink.
"It’s not a dump
really," she injected. "It’s kind of…cute." She was lying
through her teeth, and she knew it. She was just getting incredibly sick of her
mother’s constant retorts.
Ruth made it a point not to
answer, and the two went back outside. The girls who had been standing on the
curb across the street were gone by the time they reached the car, and Rose
felt a sense of disappointment. "Oh, you’ll have plenty of time to make
friends, Rose, especially once you start at Perris High School. Besides, I’ve
told Cal where we moved to, and he’ll be coming to visit every so often."
Rose felt her heart turn cold as
ice. She felt the box slipping from her fingers, and seconds later, felt a
horrible pain shoot through her foot. "Dammit!" she swore, causing
Ruth to give her a very strange look.
"I thought you’d be
pleased," she commented. "You look as though hell has won over."
It has, Rose seethed. Caledon Hockley was the
captain of the Paloma High School football team, and had been formally
introduced to Rose by her mother at a sports banquet the previous May. Rose had
been a cheerleader, so that was how they had even had the opportunity to meet
in the first place. After the first meeting, Cal had invited her out to dinner,
much to her mother’s delight.
Rose found the popular football
captain to be nothing but an arrogant bastard, which her mother refused to
believe. "Oh, I’m thrilled, Mother," Rose growled, leaping up and
down once she removed the box from on top of her toes.
"In fact, he’ll be here
tomorrow afternoon after school, and will take you out to dinner to celebrate
your first day at Perris High."
Oh, for the love of God, Rose thought bitterly, the bright spot
quickly disappearing. No matter how many cute boys she did meet or see in
Perris, her chances of attempting to date any of them were very slim.
It took about forty minutes or so
to get everything from the trucks and cars into the house, and after Ruth paid
the moving men, they left. "Well, how about some dinner?" Ruth
suggested after a few moments of awkward silence. "Since I’m obviously not
up for cooking tonight, let’s go and try one of the restaurants in town. I heard
that Amigos Tres has good food."
Rose nodded, feeling her stomach
rumble with hunger. She hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, and had barely
touched what she did have…mostly due to nerves. "Sounds good."
"Good. You can drive."
Ruth tossed Rose her keys and led the way out the door.